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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bloody British Exploitation Double Feature, January 2, 2009
This review is from: Explotation Cinema: Satan's Slave / Terror (DVD)
This double-feature DVD includes two 1970s exploitation flicks from British director Norman J. Warren: SATAN'S SLAVE (1976) and TERROR (1978). Both films were penned by David McGillivray, who also scripted two excellent films--HOUSE OF WHIPCORD (1974) and FRIGHTMARE (1974)--from the better-known director of British horror and exploitation, Pete Walker.
SATAN'S SLAVE, the weaker of these two films, stars beautiful Candace Glendenning as a young woman who is the descendant of a powerful and evil witch. After her parents are killed in a suspicious accident, she goes to live with an uncle and his son, and soon after she discovers that her relatives plan to sacrifice her during a ritual that will resurrect her infamous ancestor.
While the acting is okay and the directing adequate, the script for SATAN'S SLAVE is rather uneven and the plot is overly convoluted and hard to follow. As an exploitation horror flick, however, this film delivers the goods with plenty of gratuitous nudity and numerous gore shots that include a smashed head, a bloody suicide, and a gruesome eyeball stabbing.
The second film, TERROR, is the actual highlight of this double feature. It opens as a mob of medieval villagers capture a fleeing witch and attempt to burn her at the stake. The witch calls upon satanic forces to rescue her from her the flames, and as she escapes, she places a curse upon the descendants of the noblewoman who incited the villagers to rise up against her. This entire scene is then revealed to be the ending of a horror film, and the filmmaker claims that the story is based upon true events from his own family history. He and his female cousin, he says, are the last descendants of the noblewoman whose family was cursed by the witch. Naturally, there is skepticism among the audience for whom he has just screened the film. But at a wrap party later that evening, the filmmaker's cousin falls into a trance and attacks him with a sword...and he and his cousin begin to worry that the family curse just might be real after all.
Like the other film on this DVD, TERROR has a fair amount of female nudity--the stripper in the nightclub scene is especially eye-popping--and lots of outré gore. But this film also has a logical, comprehensible story line that is bolstered by strong performances and able directing, and the exceptional production design and cinematography create an ambiance that is exponentially eerier than that of SATAN'S SLAVE. Indeed, hardcore horror fans will recognize the distinct influence of giallo master Dario Argento on this film, especially in regards to atmosphere and gore.
This double-feature DVD offers both films at their original theatrical aspect ratios (enhanced for 16x9 TVs), and though the prints used for the transfers aren't in perfect condition, the images are very good and the soundtracks are fairly crisp and clear. Bonus materials on the DVD include a handful of trailers for other 1970s-era grindhouse and exploitation films, as well as a "grindhouse experience" option that allows you to watch both films back-to-back with concession-stand adverts and trailers inserted therein. It's almost like being in one of Manhattan's 42nd Street theaters back in the grindhouse heyday.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining slice of British horror double bill, March 3, 2010
This review is from: Explotation Cinema: Satan's Slave / Terror (DVD)
Both of these films by Norman Warren are certainly worth the look with "Satans Slave" being the more exploitative of the two with plenty of T&A, welcome frontal nudity, torture and mayhem - even if it doesn't make alot of sense.
I should point out that while "Satans Slave" is a reasonably good transfer it's mastered just from a standard well used 35mm release print that contains plenty of scratches, blunt splices and projection cue marks at reel ends. Also the print is noticably cut in a number of sequences in what i first assumed to be British film censor cuts. The naked flogging scene flashback is severely truncated as is the subsequent burning to death. The eyeball stabbing is there but has been reduced by some frames as have a couple of other scenes with so called 'sexusalised violence/horror'.
Still, it's worth a look in a decent 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer that does the best possible with the print in question.
The other half of the double bill "Terror" is a different story entirely. In many ways a Dario Argento-esque thriller (as director Warren himself acknowledged) with artfully shot and staged murder scenes and a generally competant level displayed all round in all departments. Less of the T&A here and more on atmosphere.
The cast are uniformly good and the film is constantly interesting although it doesn't really last the distance and peters out some ways before the last reel.
Unlike it's sister feature "Satans Slave", "Terror" has been mastered from a beautiful print, possibly even an interpositive instead of a regular release print as it looks superb on even a big screen 55" LCD monitor. Terrific colour and definition here. It's 1.85:1 or thereabouts.
Great presentation on this grindhouse styled disc with great menu and various crappy trailers included. This double bill is good value and light years better than the abysmal, turgid Norman G. Warren exploiter "Inseminoid" which followed a few years later.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Terror, August 4, 2008
This review is from: Explotation Cinema: Satan's Slave / Terror (DVD)
Satan's Slave
Satan's Slave (1976) delivers the wares. It's not for all tastes, but the effective atmosphere (Warren had obviously seen a few Brit Horror films, which helps) and the well-staged scenes of death and paranormal mayhem in the last half of the film are worth the price of admission alone. It's certainly beyond comparison above the 'typical' British horror films of the day and the wide screen photography, coupled with fittingly garish colors courtesy of (one assumes) outmoded film stock, looks superb. There's also a glorious cameo from Michael Gough, one of those "I know his face, but what's his name?" actors if ever there was one, and a decapitation set-piece that curiously plays like a low-budget homage to David Warner's grisly death in THE OMEN, whilst pointing the way forward to the lift-shaft carnage in that film's sequel. This is a solid-gold champion example of the kind of film that would never get made nowadays, anywhere, and will undoubtedly bring back fond memories of late night horror double features down at the local flick pit for Horror viewers of a certain age.
Terror
Terror (1978) completely lacks the edgy, tense, paranoid atmosphere of foreboding doom that marked Warren's Satan's Slave (1976) and the lighthearted nastiness, and the result is a tedious experience indeed, with a sub-standard messy performances, several sequences that make little sense and a central premise that just seems corny to our modern sensibilities. The opening credits should give you your first warning that something's astray, because no fewer than FIVE directors of photography are credited, which is probably why the overall look of the film is so muddled - for every sequence that assembles a degree of low-budget atmosphere, there are several that have the over-lit, barrel-scraping feel of a cheap public information film. In all, a mournful disappointment and a missed opportunity.
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